And as I seem to have my day job a little bit under control (today at least!) I thought I'd do a quick blog post about the highlights of my year, sewing wise.
This year started off pretty well with this blog after I made the decision to focus on free motion embroidery rather than dressmaking. Unfortunately as has happened before my day job became ridiculously busy and stressful and I ran out of brain power for blogging and my posts became even more eratic than previously. I can't quite make the decision to give it up completely though.
Anyway, on to my top three sewing highlights of the year.
In third place is the class I taught at the Knitting and Stitching show back in March, which you can read about here.
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| Just before the class started! |
It was slightly nerve-wracking having to take a huge suitcase full of kits on the train to Olympia, and I'm sure my fellow commuters didn't thank me for that! The set up was a bit rushed, but once I'd settled in to the class I really enjoyed it and I got some great feedback on the kits I provided.
In second place, something I haven't blogged about before. Back in April I had an email out of the blue from Enfield Embroiderers Guild asking if I would like to visit them and give a talk about free motion embroidery. As the date suggested wasn't until November I agreed, thinking I'd have loads and loads of time to work out what I wanted to say! In reality I left most of my preparation until about a week before hand. I was quite nervous as I'd been told to expect an audience of between 30 and 40 people, and it's a long time since I've had to speak in public to a group that size.
On the day the group were lovely and welcoming and once I'd got started I found I thought of more and more things to say. I talked about my sewing journey as a whole to begin with, then focussed in on free motion embroidery and what I love about it. I was told afterwards that one of the things that resonated most with my audience was the dilemma of pursuing a career that follows your passion v. doing the day job and keeping what you love as a hobby.
Public speaking isn't something that I would normally put myself forward for, but I really enjoyed the experience and would definitely do it again.
And finally, in 1st place has to be this...
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| The Little Book of Sewing by Karen Ball |
You can read the interview that Karen did with my for her blog shortly after the book was released here.
Again, this was something I had never done before, and had never even considered a possibility, but would love to do again.
I wonder what new experiences 2020 will bring?
That's a great year!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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